Techna NDT’s roots are embedded deep in the pioneering work of Van Phelps, who as a Boeing engineer in the 1950s and 60s laid the groundwork for today’s eddy current probe while researching ultrasound in the company’s research & development area.

However, it wasn’t until more than two decades later that Phelps and a friend saw the commercial potential of these two new NDT methods. After taking early retirement from Boeing in 1984, Phelps started NDT Engineering Corporation and began manufacturing one of the first eddy current probes widely available for testing within the airline industry.

Twenty years after starting NDT Engineering, Phelps and his partner sold the business to Olympus Corporation, which formed Olympus NDT. Three years later, he began working with Techna NDT, a startup company formed in 2004 by his daughter Trish and partners. Trish had earlier worked with NDT Engineering, specializing in ultrasonic transducers, and she continues to serve as Techna NDT’s primary expert on UT technology to this day.

At Techna NDT, we continue to walk proudly in the footsteps of Van Phelps and his groundbreaking work in the field of non-destructive testing. Our goal remains producing the highest quality reference standards, eddy current probes, ultrasonic transducers, and related accessories that are essential for ensuring the safety of thousands of commercial and private airline flights each year.